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From Crisis to Creative Destruction at Samsung

Combustible smartphones are a symptom of deeper management problems at the Korean company.

By

Geoffrey Cain

Oct. 12, 2016 12:50 p.m. ET

The Galaxy Note 7 recall and cancellation isn’t the first time Samsung has suffered a quality crisis. But the scale and nature of this fiasco shows that the company can no longer rely on its traditional approach to setbacks. Instead, it must look for new ways to drive the company’s development.

Samsung has long used crises to motivate employees. In 1995, the new mobile phones that Chairman Lee Kun-hee sent out as gifts proved to be faulty. He had workers don headbands that read “quality first” and smash $150 million worth...